Also known as 'The White Queen', the tall white building's bright red cap makes it a bold landmark on the south west Victorian coast.

Its other claim to fame is its regular appearance in Australian television show Round the Twist.

Operational from 1891, the structure is the second lighthouse from the entrance to Port Phillip Bay, on a part of the Bass Strait which has earned the nickname of 'shipwreck coast'.

Split Point Lighthouse tour guide Regina Gleeson says lighthouse keepers operated the beacon for the first 27 years and since then it has been automated.

The first head lighthouse keeper, George Bardin took the job after falling off the crow's nest of the ship he was working on during the journey to Australia.

After recovering from two broken legs, he began the role which involved climbing a 136-step spiral staircase several times a day.

At one point the site was home to about 20 children of the lighthouse keepers.

Like any historical building, there are tales of a ghost at Split Point Lighthouse.

Regina says after one of the keepers' daughters fell pregnant it is believed he took her out to sea in a row boat only to return without her.

The Great Ocean Road - built 30 years after the lighthouse construction - provided greater access to the remote communities around Aireys Inlet.

Before this supplies would be delivered by boat twice a year, but they couldn't always get close enough to deliver them by hand.

"The boat would lob into the coast as close as it could get and if conditions were fairly benign they would row everything into shore," Regina says.

"But they're not always like that here, so there were times when all of their food for the next six months and their kerosene and every single thing they needed, would just be wrapped in canvas, the sailors would just throw it into the water hopefully with an incoming tide and then it would wash up onto the beach, if they were lucky."

Aside from its modern navigational role, the Split Point Lighthouse now also serves the local community as a mobile phone tower.

'The White Queen' may be a much loved sight to the millions of visitors who travel along the Great Ocean Road each year, but it's also a great source of pride for the local community.

"The people of Aireys really see it as their special structure," Regina says.

Listen to the audio to hear Regina Gleeson's podtour of Split Point Lighthouse. Find more lighthouse stories from all around Australia on ABC Local's Shine a Light website.